CES: Intel announces mobile deals with Lenovo, Motorola and Dell

by Steven Mostyn - Jan 11 2012, 10:25

Clearly sick of watching from a shadowy corner as the likes of Qualcomm and NVIDIA dance around at ARM’s exclusive smartphone party, chipmaker Intel has finally moved to change the music and throw a few tantalizing shapes of its own.

Specifically, the Santa Clara-based technology titan has this week used the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to reveal a more aggressive stance where the mobile processing market is concerned.

For example, Intel has offered up a smartphone reference design that runs on the Atom Z2460 processor (Medfield) and sports a 4.0-inch capacitive screen, a rear-facing 8.0 mega-pixel camera, Google’s Android operating system, and HMDI out.

Further to that initial outward display of intent, the keynote address given by Intel chief executive Paul Otellini included revelations such as smartphone, tablet and Ultrabook deals with major hardware vendors such as Lenovo, Motorola and Dell.

Lenovo’s forthcoming devices, which include a 10-inch IdeaPad tablet and the briefly shown K800 smartphone, will be aimed specifically at consumers in China and should arrive in Q2 of this year. No word yet on whether said platforms will spread into other regions.

Meanwhile, Motorola and Intel have entered a multi-year partnership that is expected to produce a whole host of mobile devices powered by Intel’s new mobile processors. As such, smartphones and tablets should begin hitting the U.S. market in the latter half of 2012.

Then there’s Dell, which will be utilizing Intel’s technology in its sassy $999 XPS 13 Ultrabook. Weighing less than three pounds, promising some eight hours of battery life due to Intel’s eco-friendly chips, and equipped with a 13.3-inch Gorilla Glass display, the XPS 13 will be open for pre-order in February.

According to Intel, its latest single-core Atom processors run at 1.6GHz and provide original equipment manufacturers with access to better performance and improved energy consumption when gauged against (unspecified) ARM-based alternatives.

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